250 miles via I-278, Hutchinson Parkway/Merritt Parkway, US 7, I-95, I-91, I-291, local streets to US 202 and MA 122 with a refueling stop and a stop in New Salem MA to introduce Ooma to Jett’s brother Ray and his wife Kim. Cumulative TN8 route miles: 1615. Cumulative car miles: 1844. Car miles since the end of Hop 5: 389. The extra car miles were due mostly to the Manhattan driving tour and the trip to the Staten Island ferry terminal.
We left the hotel at 11:15am and really thought we would get to our meet-and-greet stop in New Salem by 3:30pm. After all, we hadn’t encountered any significant traffic delays in our Thursday tour of Manhattan so why would it be any worse on a weekend? Well, I don’t know why it was so bad, but the first 70 miles of this hop were among the worst I have ever experienced, taking over 3 hours (average speed: 22 mph) and we didn’t reach New Salem until 5:15pm, nearly 2 hours later than we expected. Heavy, heavy traffic all through New York and into Connecticut. It didn’t lighten much at all until we got on I-91 heading into Hartford. Miserable.
The visit in New Salem was socially-distanced, so no hugging or kissing. Ooma was still feeling some lingering effects of COVID. When we left we still had a 70-minute journey to our final destination in Worcester – Ray and Kim’s house. We arrived at dusk and did as little as possible when we finally arrived – we will clean out the car and set up for 4 weeks in Worcester on Sunday. Ooma was exhausted and headed straight to bed.
I will do the TN8 wrapup next.